Brendan Jesus
Welcome back, fellow treasure hunters! We’ve been getting some hits and comments on previous coverage of Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch, and I wanted to say thank you to those who have been checking out previous articles! Before we get into Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch: Detonation Threat (S5E5), I, for once, have positive Ufology news! It’s technically not UFOlogy news, but it exists in the same sphere.
Independent astronomer Bray Falls recently posted on Twitter something fascinating. He has created the largest, by quantity of scopes, remote observatory in the world. Each telescope is owned by someone who can log in remotely. Once logged in, the telescope owner can capture photos of space! It’s incredibly wonderful to see someone putting the skies in our own hands, and you can learn more about Bray’s observatory by clicking here.
Now, it’s time to head back to one of our two favorite ranches in Utah to see what our treasure hunters are up to and if it gets us any closer to getting to the bottom of the Mystery…at Blind Frog Ranch.
Remember The Name?
Chad Ollinger and James Keenan arrive at The Armory. Given last week’s information on the potential massacre that took place here, James has a thought. If this were a defensive position, there should be an entrance nearby. And if it were an armory, there could be potentially valuable stuff beneath their feet. James decides to use his GPR with the hopes of finding a void somewhere near The Armory.
At the start, Chad is only seeing proper layers in the GPR’s HUD. This causes James to move the GPR to an area that has a slight change in topography. Chad immediately sees a potential void on the screen. They set down their gear and start to inspect the rock face near the potential void.
James starts moving some rocks. But it’s Chad who hears an odd sound. Chad moves a few rocks and sticks his hand into a large hole. A grin appears on his face as he pulls something out. Ribbit ribbit. It’s a wet frog!
Also smiling, James exclaims that this frog shouldn’t be this far up. Nor should it be as wet as it is. Remember, Duane Ollinger named this Blind Frog Ranch because he found hundreds of frogs near the Water Pit (which they start referring to as a pond throughout this episode). That means there is an excellent chance that they are correct in the assumption that the acoustic beacon traveled under The Armory and that it’s somehow connected to the Water Pit.
Chad and James rush to The Hideout to share the interesting news. Charlie Boy and Duane are eagerly awaiting their arrival. They show them the frog, and Duane is awestruck. He wants to get a camera down the hole to see if they can find any further information.
Endoscopy Time
Charlie Boy feeds the endoscope camera down the hole as James watches the feed. They get in about 10 feet and notice how the opening seems natural. That’s when they see something incredible. Two more frogs! And these are also wet!
Explosive Drilling
The next day, Chad and Duane led Drill Master Denzel Roberts to The Armory. They plan to use a sonic drill on the spot where James’s GPR indicated a void. Denzel sets up the sonic drill. Josh says he will check the dirt composition with each sample that comes up from the sonic drill core. He’ll look for moisture and specific changes in the dirt.
Denzel’s first core sample comes up after going down about 30 feet. It’s bone dry and seems fairly normal. The drill goes back down. At around 50 feet, the drill hits something weirdly hard. It’s decided to pull the drill up and sample the core they’re able to.
James starts to check the second sample when tragedy strikes. A large fire starts to gush flames out of the hole. Chad runs over quickly and kicks dirt on it. Could it be natural gas? Nevertheless, the drill comes to a complete halt. Josh says they should give Eric the second core sample for further analysis.
We join up with Eric at The Hideout. He starts to examine the second core sample and says the fire could have been caused by either natural gas or a coal seam. This core sample is noticeably darker than usual soil samples from around the ranch.
Eric decides to sift the sample and look at it under a microscope. The sample appears to have some granulated carbonaceous material in it. This means Denzel has drilled into a coal deposit. And that is bad news. It means the ranch is sitting on top of a highly volatile and easily flammable material. One wrong move and the ranch could turn into a flattop griddle. But first, Eric wants to test the combustibility of the coal.
Chad and Duane join Erik, Josh, James, and Charlie Boy at The Hideout. Eric reveals to them that they’ve tapped into a coal deposit. But testing its flammability is their first priority. He pours a small pile of his sifted coal dust and lights it on fire. It goes up fast and harshly.
While that’s all around bad news, Eric does note that the coal in the core sample looked very patchy. So that means there is a good chance they only tapped into a small seam of it, and that it most likely doesn’t exist under the entirety of the ranch. Duane seems to think they should continue drilling.
The new plan is to move the sonic drill about 20 feet to the east of their previous location. Everyone is on board, except one person. Josh seems to have hesitation about potentially lighting the entire ranch on fire. He knows it’s Duane’s call at the end of the day, but he’s admittedly against continuing the dig. Josh backs off for now, but possibly saves the day with a later idea.
Driller Killer
Denzel moves the sonic drill and starts back up. The first core sample comes up with a tiny bit of coal, but it’s only a small amount in the first five feet. Josh continues to call this operation an unnecessary risk, but it just might pay off. (It should be noted that Denzel also implies it’s a bad idea.) They continue drilling and eventually hit a geyser of water. Chad takes a water sample for analysis.
Dam, Good Plan!
Josh is still hesitant about continuing to drill. Because they hit water, they plan to bring a $75,000 rathole-rig operation out to the hole. But Josh has a better plan. For $2,000, they can rent a water pump and drain the Water Pit. He says that Duane is thinking too much like an oilman, whose motto is drill, drill, drill. Duane needs to be thinking like a treasure hunter.
Once the water is removed (or reduced) from the Water Pit, Chad could wade his way through until he reaches The Armory. Duane concedes that Josh’s idea is both smart and physically responsible.
Josh, James, Chad, and Charlie Boy head over to the Water Pit. Chad says this plan could just as well work. They could create a temporary storage pond and dam it, creating a secondary containment basin.
Duane pulls up with his excavator and gets to work. Over two hours, Duane moves 10,000 cubic feet of dirt to create this dam. That was the easy part. Now, it has to be compacted and fortified.
“It’s prettier than the Hoover Dam.” – Duane Ollinger
The majority of the dam is set, but it’s time to compact it. There’s an intense moment where Duane has to maneuver his excavator from one end to the other. It’s incredibly intense to watch, but he eventually makes it to one end. Charlie Boy watches from one side, and James watches from the other. They are watching to make sure Duane doesn’t go too far to one edge or to make sure that too much dirt doesn’t fall off.
On the way back, Duane pushes left to right for some time. It’s almost as impressive as a tightrope walker. He makes it back successfully. But there’s a big but.
Next Time On
I don’t typically report on the “next time on…” for this show, but the one this week is heartbreaking. As Duane parks the excavator, he yells out in pain. His right arm goes limp. And then he gets intense pain in his left arm. Chad runs over and helps him out. It seems like Duane is rushed to the hospital.
Final Thoughts
This was an incredibly tense episode! First, I hope Duane is okay. Watching him build the dam and have so much fun was great to see! We haven’t seen him be fully hands-on like this for a while. It’s just a shame what that turned into.
Chad finding the frogs was a great moment. It is relatively clear that The Armory is connected to the Keyhole Cavern and/or Water Pit somehow. If they can pull off Josh’s idea, this could be the single best thing to happen to them on the ranch. But will it work? And will Duane be okay?
I guess we’ll find out on the next episode of Mystery…at Blind Frog Ranch.
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Catch Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch: Detonation Threat on Discovery or with a Max subscription.
